How can I determine if a phone is jailbroken?

[blasian]

A friend has a phone which I believe was jailbroken and had some type of spy app installed. Upon looking at their phone there are no cydia or icy icons. I've been told there is a way to jb without having icons. I've seen multiple post as well after searching for an answer. But no one states how.

Is there anything I can do to verify or confirm it is currently jailbroken and what apps have been installed?

TIA

 

[The General]

A friend has a phone which I believe was jailbroken and had some type of spy app installed.

What makes you think that?

Upon looking at their phone there are no cydia or icy icons. I've been told there is a way to jb without having icons. I've seen multiple post as well after searching for an answer. But no one states how.

Is there anything I can do to verify or confirm it is currently jailbroken and what apps have been installed?

TIA

Determining whether or not a phone is jailbroken doesn't fix the problem of your fictitious "spy app" ... restoring the phone, however, will.

 

[labman]

MY advice

if you don't understand the device restore it back too default you can always jail break it at another point. and shouldn't your friend know about said spy app, then again maybe he is the one spying on you!

 

[iPhone-power]

A friend has a phone which I believe was jailbroken and had some type of spy app installed.

Look out, Big Brother is watching !

 

[blasian]

She will be restoring the phone. But would like to try to uncover or preserve anything for legal reasons. Yes, I know a full restore will fix the issue with the phone. However it will not confirm if there was a "spy" app installed.

Back to my original question how can one confirm a iphone is jailbroken when there are no cydia, icy, etc icons showing.

 

[bruinsrme]

Back to my original question how can one confirm a iphone is jailbroken when there are no cydia, icy, etc icons showing.

down load an iphone broswer like disk aid or similar and see what the file structure looks like.
diskaid will not let you into the phone unless it is jailbroken

 

[ViViDboarder]

She will be restoring the phone. But would like to try to uncover or preserve anything for legal reasons. Yes, I know a full restore will fix the issue with the phone. However it will not confirm if there was a "spy" app installed.

Back to my original question how can one confirm a iphone is jailbroken when there are no cydia, icy, etc icons showing.

If you can't confirm anything there are no legal reasons...

What is happening that you think there may be a spy app? (Nothing exists like this as far as I know)

The easiest way to see if it's got any apps on it is to jailbreak it is to try to jailbreak it and then you can log in via SSH and run the 'top' command. That will show you every process that is running. If there is an app monitoring the phone it will show up.

 

[gngan]

Seriously, why are you are so desperate to find out if there is any 'spy app'? If you are afraid people are spying you then just do a simple restore. Problem solved.

 

[thelatinist]

You should be aware that if you have MobileMe and have "find my phone" enabled it is possible to locate an unjailbroken phone.

 

[ViViDboarder]

You should be aware that if you have MobileMe and have "find my phone" enabled it is possible to locate an unjailbroken phone.

You think that's what they are mistaking for a spy app? Possible.

 

[thelatinist]

You think that's what they are mistaking for a spy app? Possible.

It's possible. I am guessing that someone (husband? boyfriend? ex?) knows too much about where she's been. MobileMe could explain that. Not saying it's likely, but, hey, I could find out where my wife is (and vice versa) right now if I wanted to...

 

[ViViDboarder]

It's possible. I am guessing that someone (husband? boyfriend? ex?) knows too much about where she's been. MobileMe could explain that. Not saying it's likely, but, hey, I could find out where my wife is (and vice versa) right now if I wanted to...

I'll save you some trouble... She's with me.

*sigh* Couldn't resist.

The OP hasn't given us any information as to why they'd suspect there was even a "spy" app installed... So it's hard for us to tell. Or even tell them how to solve the issue.

 

[thelatinist]

The OP hasn't given us any information as to why they'd suspect there was even a "spy" app installed... So it's hard for us to tell. Or even tell them how to solve the issue.

Since the OP mentions wanting evidence for legal reasons, I imagine it involves either divorce or a stalking. We had a similar thread before from a woman who said she was worried about an abusive partner being able to track her when she sought a way out of the relationship.

 

[blasian]

I am trying to help out a friend and it involves an ex stalking her. She also has excessive text messaging and data charges when she rarely uses it. The suspect is believed to have taken her phone and mysteriously returned it 6 hours later. She doesn't download apps, however her springboard also had multiple pages for just the default apps. I believe this person jailbroke her phone and installed a app such as smstrapper or something similar. Not to mention her battery coincidentally goes thru battery life extremely quick.

 

[ViViDboarder]

I am trying to help out a friend and it involves an ex stalking her. She also has excessive text messaging and data charges when she rarely uses it. The suspect is believed to have taken her phone and mysteriously returned it 6 hours later. She doesn't download apps, however her springboard also had multiple pages for just the default apps. I believe this person jailbroke her phone and installed a app such as smstrapper or something similar. Not to mention her battery coincidentally goes thru battery life extremely quick.

If all that is happening... Yes. It's jailbroken and yes someone installed stuff on it. Although the excessive SMS charges seems curious though.

Everything else can be done with a jailbroken phone. You can try to use DiskAid or iFunBox and see if you can access the / filesystem. You will then be able to see what modifications were made to the phone.